1 Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to high volume food loaf slicing machines. More specially, this invention relates to improvements of the food loaf slicing machine described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,263.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many food loaf products, ranging from bologna and sausage through meat loaf, ham loaf, and other food loaf products, are initially manufactured in long loaves, usually ranging from two to six feet in length. These food loaves are then machine sliced and packaged prior to shipment to retail outlets. A food loaf slicing machine employed in this field should have a high rate of production, preferably in a range of at least two hundred to about seven hundred slices or more per minute. It is essential that the slices be cleanly and smoothly cut. To avoid undue waste, it is also important to maintain precise and accurate control of the weight of the individual slices as well as the weight of each stack. Continuous operation of the slicing machine is virtually essential, since any interuption required for removing errant slices, misformed stacks or for any other purpose materially reduces the production rate.
In one commercial food loaf slicing machine, each food loaf is fed generally downwardly, by a conveyor mechanism, into a slicing station. As the end of the loaf advances into the slicing station, it is cut off by a rotating orbiting circular knife. The orbiting motion of the knife, which swings the knife into and out of the slicing station, determines the slice rate or production rate of the machine. The rotation of the knife provides a clean slicing action. Machines of this general type, though basicially advantageous as compared with other slicing mechanisms, nevertheless present continuing difficult problems. Even the more advanced slicing machines that incorporate means for continuously adjusting the orbital knife rotation speeds present continuing high speed sliced product stacking problems.